Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Murtha Moves to Block Intelligence Budget Disclosure

WTF?!? This is where Murtha and I part company.

Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense John Murtha (D-PA) has moved to block a provision President Bush signed into law making the national intelligence budget public.

"One day after President Bush signed into law a bill that requires public disclosure of the national intelligence budget, the House of Representatives adopted an amendment to prevent that requirement from taking effect," Steven Aftergood, editor of Secrecy News, wrote Monday.
It's not hard to wonder why old fat cats like Murtha who are currently dominating the pork bananza don't want to disclose anything that might highlight the huge loophole with "black budget" earmarks that are exempt from last week's ethics/earmark reform. Those "Black Budget" earmarks were apparently a favorite of Duke Cunningham, Dusty Foggo, and their gang of co-conspirators, so we'll probably never know the half of how corrupt the Duke really was, or perhaps more importantly anyone else doling out (un-)questionable secret earmarks on the hill who so far is getting away with it.